Curried Ginger Date Bok Choy and Soy Knots

While Rob remains away (he came and left again), I was whisked away by friends into a wonderfully chaotic Diwali celebration over the weekend. A huge crowd came to the Houston BAPS in Sugarland to enjoy the music, light and firework display for the Indian festival of lights. A place named Sugarland, a suburb of Houston, seems like a fitting place for a Diwali celebration which includes a lot of dancing, fun, and food including Indian sweets.

While I don’t know the difference between a laddoo, burfi, and mysore pak, I can tell you all about how make dhokla, a steamed chickpea flour bread, and baked (not fried!) pakoras. Obviously, I am all over the savoury Indian meals. While I adore Indian curries, I like mixing Indian spices with other dishes as well.

Enter this simple bok choy skillet with soy knots. I got the idea from Iyer’s newest cookbook, Indian Cooking Unfolded. Iyer, the author of one of our favourite Indian cookbooks 660 Curries, has written a new cookbook that is, in essence, a cooking class in book form. Based on his own cooking curriculum, he takes you through different cooking techniques in each chapter, highlighting ingredients, methods and tips for each recipe. What it lacks in number of recipes, he makes up for it in sharing his cooking knowledge.

So, I took his idea for a quick-and-easy ginger raisin bok choy side dish and turned it into a heartier ginger date bok choy skillet with soy knots. I swapped dates for the raisins and added in these interesting soy knots. To be honest, I prefer the texture of the yuba skins (aka tofu intestines) as they were very dense. The recipe, though, is a keeper. A colourful keeper perfect for any celebration. A bit more spicy than I am used to (darn, green chiles in the tomatoes) but it mellowed as leftovers and worked well with the sweetness of the dates.

1. In a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Once hot, add ginger and dates. Cook until fragrant and light brown, and the dates begin to caramelize, around 2 minutes.

3. Stir in the knots and coat with the flavourings. Stir in baby bok choy, adding them in batches, so that they fit int eh pan. Sprinkle with curry powder and salt. Stir to combine.

3. Increase the heat to high and cook the boy choy, uncovered, until the stems are tender-crisp, around 3-5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until warmed through, around 1-2 minutes more. Serve warm.

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I’ve never had bean curd knots but other than those, all of these ingredients rate as amongst my favourites, and yet I’ve never had them together. I have to rectify that – dates in stir fry type dishes would be just my kind of thing!

Diwali is definitely my favorite Indian holiday! Mostly for the sweets but also for the eating in general..I could never get enough Indian fare! Love that you infused this stir fry with indian flavors!

oooh this looks so interesting! I love the idea of using dates in a curry dish. It always seems to need a bit of sweetness, but I’ve never thought of using dates. The bok choy as the main ingredient sounds really great too. Thanks for sharing🙂

[…] Raghavan Iyer called them in Indian Cooking Unfolded. I have told you about this lovely cookbook earlier, but it bears repeating because I really like it. Iyer has taken Indian cooking to its elemental […]